We are moving

yes the move has started and will hopefully be completed tomorrow. Normal service will resume soon

After the rain...........

Merry Christmas

from a wet and windy Morocco! I hope everyone has a happy day, full of good cheer and surrounded by family and friends.

Here it is just another day....

We have had non stop rain for almost a week now (or is it longer - all the days are merging marked only by the increasing size and number of puddles).

We had been waiting for rain (or man hauled water) to fill our well before we moved in but then when it did start raining we found all the little flaws in the concreting! I think now our new house is drier than the house we are in ... but it is not a great idea to move house in torrential rain so we are waiting it out for some drier weather.

I have been ill! I was feeling rotten for a few days with a sore throat and swollen glands which weren't getting any better so I went to see a doctor. She agreed I was ill and gave me some antibiotic so I am feeling much better now. This was coupled with a burnt finger - that I didn't remember doing but started to take on elephant man appearances - and a very sore and bloody big toe when I slipped and stubbed it in the patio!

everywhere else is wet, wet and windy. The river in the valley below our house is a raging torrent of red and has flooded the road between here and Tiraluin (?) the next village along. Yesterday Mohamed went in to Inzegane to get some polythene sheeting to try and help waterproof our house (it now has a raincoat!) and had to wait an hour to get back across the river at the Paradise Nomades. I think a tree had been swept away in the river and blocked the bridge for a while.

..........and in the village when we have heavy rain the power goes... so nothing for it but go to bed.

The cats are all really pissed off with the weather and either spend the day in bed with me or perched on top of something looking miserable.

Oooh it has stopped raining! The photo was taken from the front door, looking up the road, at the start of the rainy week, I will venture out today and get some more shots of wild and wetness.

.... our reward for this rain will be beautiful greenness. Which is already starting to sprout.

Camels

Yes these are some of the nomads and their camels down in the valley below the new house. The locals don't really like them near the village as they think the camels eat all their goat's food.....

Winter draws on....

Well here I am still in the pink house. We are getting our well looked at tomorrow to make sure it is not leaking and then we will be getting it filled up so we will have washing water when we move in..... There is rain forecast for the weekend and the start of next week but if that fails we will get our truck over to collect some water to fill the well. But that is the only thing that is delaying the move now.

We had a really bad rain storm the other night, heavy rain with thunder and lightening and of course the electricity went out. You might almost have felt sorry for us crouching over a tagine lit by a couple of night light candles. And I have been feeling the cold. In the sun it is still quite warm, but out of the sun and at night I have been feeling rather cold - I suppose it is not helped that our "living room" is in fact outdoors. Up at the house it seems quite scottish with the wind blowing around.

As well as the well (?) we have a large water tanked parked on our upstairs patio/roof and Mohamed has rigged up the electric pump he used while building so that water from the well will be pumped up into the tank which then gravity feeds a small tap in our toilet (or will do when the tap is fixed). So I will have running water! I think the only other thing we need to do for now is rig a plastic sheet over the stairwell so that I don't have too much running water - since we are now in the rainy season.

I walked up to the house the other evening with some coffee for Mohamed and about 100 yards up the hill found that Honey had followed me. She skipped along in the fields at the side of the road - more cautiously when she found herself in strange lands (which was quite far up the road actually) and came with me all the way to the house. She had a good sniff round so when we move she at least will be on slightly familiar territory. It reminded me of Taroudant when Honey, Marmela, Elvis and sometimes Martha would all follow me if I went along to the local corner shop (Aretha would stay at home keeping look out for me coming back).

We bought some of the plastic rafia type matting that is very common here to put on the concrete floors as I didn't really want to put our berber carpet straight on to concrete and it will be a while before we can get the floors tiled. Anyway it is starting to look quite homely.

I had to make my monthly trip to the Police Station in Taroudant yesterday to see if my Carte de Sejour had arrived. It had not - that is 6 months now.

I collected Mohamed's mother and some of our things that were in storage in her house. She is staying with us for a few days before heading off to Chtouka to see her brother (and sister probably). I wonder if we will see scorpions as we haven't had any in the house since last time she was here. I have been reading that lavender acts as a deterrent so I am going to have lavender bushes on either side of the door and under any windows..... I have also bought some nasturtium seeds to start growing. I am really looking forward to having a garden again and this time no horse to tempt me away from it.

And that is about all my news. This picture is of the family at the Eid checking out the goat lungs. We still have a fair quantity of goat meat in the freezer - despite eating it at every other meal.....



In the village they have a jolly few days after the Eid with a few of the local youths dressed up in goatskins and touring round the houses playing music and dancing. You have to pay them money and they will hit you with some goats feet which is supposed to bring you luck. The lads all have a big party with the funds raised. I have written a bit about the leather man or goat man or Boujeloud in the blog I write. See the link for "the official blog" on this page. Unfortunately my camera battery died when we got up close to a goat man... here is a far away shot. Will definitely try to get some better pictures for next year.

Elvis is a big Mummy's Boy!

No news turns out to be good news

Yes sorry for the absence, Honey went missing last weekend and I was feeling very low about it all week.... so not really feeling like blogging. But she came back late this morning, very hungry and thin and a bit edgy but otherwise fine. She must have gone in to someone's house who then went away for the week and left her locked in.

The distress was compounded when Elvis also went missing - but he came back after only a day. I think I will have to get them all implanted with a locator chip or something.

I will write some more later but I have to get lunch cooked. Mohamed is up at the house grouting the bathroom tiles.